The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-09-01
BISMaRCK'S QuIEI SUMMER.


or the leading European states
men there is but one who can look
back with hearty satisfaction on the
work of the last six months aud
thoroughly enjoy his summer vaca-
ton. For Bismarck alone all has
gone we'll at home, while for the
present all the signs of molestation
on the part of either of his country's
unfriendly neighbors have disap-
peared. The total or temporary
eclipse of Boulanger on the French
horizon has allayed the apprehen-
sions of danger from that quarter,
and the mortal malady of Katkoff
has shattered the main prop of the
antl-German party in the Cars
dominious.
So that for some months to come
there is likely to be nothing to pre-
vent Bismarck from leading for per-
haps the last time in his life the
delightful existence Of country
gentleman in his Pomeranian estate
of Varzin. 1t is true that he can
hunt no longer, but he can amble
on a stout cob through his fields and
plantations, pausing now and then
to chat with farmer or woodman,
or visiting his wood paper mills, or
dismounting to cast fly or pot a
bird. 1t is true, too, that DR..
Schwenninger has cut down the
Gargantuan volume of food which
Bismarck's big body could once as
simulate, and has interdicted the use
of liquids at meals. But after he
has finished his dinner-he dimes at
half-past five-he has long summer
evening beforshim, during which
he is at liberty to quaff a flask of
the red wine which he has pro-
nounced the natural beverage of the
North German, not forgetting to top
off with a glass of the schndpS
which he told Busch at Versailles is
the right drink for Generals. Then,
as he comforts himself with a long
pull at his pipe, the old mans mind
may travel back to those early days
at Gottingen when the Pomeranian
Junker was a "chain SMOKER" one
of those mighty men whose nights
and mornings are connected by a
cable of cigars, every link of which
is lighted at the stump of its pre-
decessor.
On the whole, then, Bismarck can
look forward to a summer decidedly
Tess toying than was that of 1870,
when he was sometimes all day in
the saddle, and lucky to get two
hours sleep, and when hise brain
was racked to keep Austria and
Russia quiet while his country dealt
with France. The Chancellor would
find it hard to bear now at seventy
two what he endured with cheerful
ness at fifty-five. Yet he may feel
it incumbent upon him to face again
the hardships of campaign before
another twelvemonth has elapsed.
The programme of Boulanger has
survived the deposed General, and
the danger of an alliance between
France and Russia can never be re-
garded as completely conjured while
Ignatieff lives. Nor i'll the home
politics of Germany is there any
assurance that an era of good feel
ing has fairly set in. When the
Reichstag and Landtag reasonable
it may turn out that Windthorst's
sting is only sheathed, not lost, and
the coalition of Conservatives with
National Liberals is not the firmest
in the world. Then there is the
change of masters which is con-
stantly impending, and cannot in
the course of nature be long defer
red; the change from the aged
Kaiser, who trusts his Chancellor
above any man on earth, to Crown
Prince who has some Sights to re-
member, and Crown Princess who
has a mind of her own.
Thus the calm and pleasant sum-
mer days that the chief of European
statesmen will pass among the woods
of Varzin may not be wholly I'M
clouded by the misgiving that they
will be his last.